Archive for October, 2015

According to Daily Mail, British aid money is being used to subsidise public services in tax havens, an investigation has found.

Daily Mail says that millions of pounds have gone to countries such as Belize as well as Anguilla and Panama, which have such high poverty levels that they qualify for substantial UK development grants. In just one year, Britain paid out GDP 45 million in aid to 13 countries included on a European Commission tax haven ‘blacklist’.

The investigation, published in The Independent, found British aid funds have been used to build an airport in Montserrat, and set aside to pay for roads and ports in Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Belize has signed bilateral trade agreements with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which will become the basis for inflow of private sector, as well as government investments from this country, and will strengthen Belize’s position as the regional energy leader. The model of Belize Natural Energy Limited (BNE) was extremely important in signing the agreement to build relationship between the countries.

Oil was discovered in Belize ten years ago, and BNE believes that the country can share UAE’s experience and vision that the discovery of oil is only the start of economic success story of the country, the UAE providing necessary financial and knowledge-based resources to achieve the success.

Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow has called early general elections, which are to be held on November 4, 2015. October 15 will be nomination day. The National Assembly is to be dissolved by the governor general just after three and a half years of this government’s current term, which counts from March 7, 2012, and this is going to be the earliest election ever in the country.

In the last general elections, United Democratic Party got 17 seats in the National Assembly while the opposition People’s United Party had 14. After a period of restoration, Barrow said the time had come to ask for a new mandate. By his words, now “the UDP must focus exclusively on the positive, on forwarding opportunity and change.”